Settings in Google Search

Last updated: September 25, 2015 - 12:33pm EDT

Sure, Google Search is really simple and convenient to use from the get-go. But there are a few quick and easy things that you can do to tweak Google Search so that it works just the way you want it to. You can tell Google Search to keep you away from naughty results, or to give you more results at once. You can even change what languages your results will be in. Give them a try!

How to change your Google Search settings

When you reach the main page, click Settings in the lower-right corner, and then click Search Settings.

The first tab that will come up is of settings that affect your Search Results. You can click on that phrase to select this tab if you go to another one. Click on the buttons in the screenshot below to get an explanation of some of the settings.

SafeSearch Filters

Click the check box beside "Filter explicit results", and Google will do its best to not accidentally show you any websites, videos, or pictures that have to do with nudity or pornography.

Google Instant Predictions

This setting governs whether or not Google Search will display possible results as you type in what you're looking for. Click the button beside the option you want to use.

- Only if my computer is fast enough: this will automatically turn Instant Results on or off based on how smoothly your computer and Internet connection are running.

- Always show Instant Results: this will make Google Search always attempt to show you possible search results as you type in what you're looking for.

- Never show Instant Results: this will prevent Google Search from showing you possible search results as you type in what you're looking for. You will have to enter your search terms in full, and then click Google Search.

Results per page

Click on different areas of the slider to have Google Search display 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 100 search results on any single page.

Note that having more results per page may make it easier to find what you're looking for (since you get to see more results at once and not have to skip back and forth between results pages so often), but it will slow down Google Search a bit as it takes more time to retrieve and sort all of those results at once.

​Also note that if Instant Results is currently enabled, you can't change this setting. You will always see 10 results per page.

Where results open

Click the check box here to make it so that each time you click on a search result, it will open a new window in your web browser. This is useful if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, because you can check each result to see if it's the one you want without losing your whole list of results.

Save/Cancel

Click Save if you've made any changes that you would like to keep. Otherwise, click Cancel.

If you click the Languages tab, you can set the language of your interface on Google Search, as well as choose to have Google Search return results that are in certain languages and not others.

Under "Which language should Google products use?", click the button beside the language that you want the menu items on Google Search to be in. You can also click See More to see further options, or click See Less to limit your options to the most common ones. There are some humourous options here such as "Hacker", "Pirate", and "Elmer Fudd", so try them out if you want a laugh!

Under "Currently showing results in:", you can see the languages of content that will show up in your Google Search results. Click Edit to show a list of languages that you can include or exclude from your Google Search results. Click the check box beside a language to add content of that language to your search results.

NOTE: because this is Google.com (the American version of the website), English will be selected by default and cannot be deselected.

When you're done making changes, click Save to keep them or click Cancel if you'd rather not.

Clicking Help will take you to a new page where you get further help on how to use Google Search. Hopefully you won't need it, seeing as we're walking you through how to do it and all, but it might be worth a try if something comes up and you get stuck.

And those are the basic settings that you can use to adjust how Google Search works for you. Try them out!

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